Rather than picking a lesson or other element of the Daily Office today, I'd rather make a general comment:
If Christianity is a multicolored quilt whose beauty as a whole is dependent upon the contribution of its component pieces, then the Anglican tradition should be praised for its wonderful contribution of the Book of Common Prayer.
And the folks behind The Online Daily Office need to be recognized for a wonderful help in the spiritual lives of many...certainly mine.
I love having ready access not only to the lessons of the day, but the rotation of prayers...prayers that I might want to pray, but that I might very well not bring to mind except for the petitions provided.
Praying the Daily Office is one of those practices that is so beneficial to me -- in ways that I can't even articulate really, other than to say that it puts me in a prayerful and peaceful mood throughout the day no matter what else might be happening -- I don't understand why I sometimes have to make myself do it; I suppose it's that old Pauline that-which-I-should-do-I-fail-to-do dynamic. But I'd strongly recommend to any readers who are having a hard time developing a prayer life around spontaneous prayer -- try fixed prayer; the Daily Office or any denominational equivalent. Just try it for a week or two and you'll see what I mean.
3 comments:
I tried it and liked it, but I'm not sure how to do it in the context of a shjared family computer. I mostly do my out-loud praying in my room, or in the shower. I could do this today because i'm on my own for the evening. also, how do you pick the collect?
Beth
I love doing the liturgy of the hours too. When pressed for time, I use http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/hours.php. When I have more time, I like to use http://dailyoffice.wordpress.com/ which has the collects all picked out. Without the computer I would just use the appropriate office from the ELW. I love the Compline service that we do at the seminary.
I love praying the Daily Office too. And Mission St. Clare is my favorite place to go online.
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